Meanwhile, another Cloud Ninja rapidly formed hand seals and shouted, "Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!"
Tokiju furrowed his brow and swiftly dodged to the side, barely avoiding the other Cloud Ninja's lightning-charged blade.
Just then, three golden-yellow balls of lightning flew straight toward Tokiju.
Seeing them coming, Tokiju immediately rolled backward, barely dodging the first lightning ball.
At the time, inside the Sealing Space, there was no gravity, so he and Uchiha Hikari had always sparred while floating.
Tokiju still wasn't used to fighting with his feet firmly on the ground like this.
Seeing Tokiju dodge the first lightning ball, the Cloud Ninja immediately controlled the remaining two and sent them hurtling toward him.
Meanwhile, the other Cloud Ninja with the blade pressed forward again, repeatedly slashing at Tokiju with his lightning-wreathed sword.
At this, Tokiju's eyes narrowed. Taking advantage of the moment when the Cloud Ninja swung his blade, he swiftly formed hand seals, then pressed his hands against the man.
"Sealing Jutsu: Binding Seal!"
As Tokiju's voice fell, countless black markings instantly spread across the Cloud Ninja's body, locking down all his movements.
Tokiju then shoved the Cloud Ninja forward, using his body to block the two remaining lightning balls.
Crackle!
The lightning balls exploded, leaving the sword-wielding Cloud Ninja charred all over and pouring out clouds of black smoke.
For a Cloud Ninja, those two lightning balls amounted to little more than minor injuries. But because of the Binding Seal, he still couldn't move at all.
Seeing this, the Cloud Ninja who had used the jutsu immediately came to his senses. He realized they had picked a fight with someone far beyond their reach.
They had originally been ordered to sneak into the Land of Fire and investigate the enemy's border defenses and troop movements.
They hadn't thought the mission would be too difficult. After all, all three of them were Special Jōnin with decent sensory abilities.
But just after they entered the Land of Fire, they unexpectedly sensed someone's voice nearby.
It was strange. They could hear someone, yet they couldn't sense anything else—not a trace of chakra or even a person's presence.
Suspecting something was off, they decided to investigate. If it turned out to be a threat, they could eliminate it on the spot.
When they arrived, they found that it was only an ordinary little kid catching fish.
Since they couldn't afford to be discovered during the infiltration, or they would never make it back alive, they had decided to eliminate Tokiju as a potential threat before anything could go wrong.
They had planned to simply throw a Kunai and kill him.
But they hadn't expected him to dodge.
And then the events just now had unfolded.
As for why the Cloud Ninjas thought Tokiju was an ordinary person, that came down to the Breath-Locking Seal he had developed.
Ever since Tokiju had created this Sealing Jutsu, which could completely conceal his presence, he had taken to pressing one onto himself whenever he had the chance.
That way, he could keep his presence from leaking and revealing his true strength.
As for how powerful the Sealing Jutsu was?
Tokiju didn't know whether the Byakugan could see through it, but Uchiha Hikari's Mangekyō Sharingan certainly couldn't.
Seeing that his teammates had been dealt with in just a few exchanges, the Cloud Ninja immediately turned to flee.
He had only one thought now: escape, and make sure to report the information back.
The man in front of him wasn't wearing a Forehead Protector, but his features clearly marked him as someone from the Land of Fire.
Damn the Land of Fire! Why were they always producing one genius after another?!
And the boy was obviously very young, six or seven at most.
The jutsu he had used was beyond the Cloud Ninja's understanding. He had to get this information back. Otherwise, once the boy grew up, he would become a great enemy of Kumogakure.
Seeing the man run, Tokiju was about to chase after him, but soon stopped.
His Mind's Eye of the Kagura had sensed a familiar chakra waiting along the Cloud Ninja's escape route.
Seeing that, Tokiju shrugged and thought, I'll leave him to you, then.
The Cloud Ninja ran as fast as he could, but he hadn't gone far when a red-eyed girl blocked his path.
Seeing his escape route cut off, the Cloud Ninja was about to change course.
But before he could react, his eyes met Uchiha Hikari's.
In an instant, the Cloud Ninja's expression turned vacant.
He had clearly fallen under a genjutsu.
The moment the genjutsu took hold, he had only one thought: Damn Uchiha!
Once she had him under her spell, Uchiha Hikari immediately pulled a Kunai from her pocket and plunged it into his heart.
Her reasoning was that they only needed one prisoner alive for the information.
She didn't pull the Kunai back out, since leaving it in place would help keep the blood from spilling everywhere.
Once she was done, she dragged the Cloud Ninja back to where Tokiju had fought.
When she arrived, she saw Tokiju and Shizune interrogating the Cloud Ninja who had been sealed, but they didn't seem to be making much progress.
As for Tsunade, she had left as soon as she saw Tokiju blow up the first Cloud Ninja.
She had hemophobia, after all. It was understandable.
When Uchiha Hikari returned, Tokiju immediately called out, "Hikari, come interrogate this guy. We're really at a loss."
Neither Tokiju nor Shizune was any good at interrogating people for information.
Shizune was a medical student. She had spent all these years traveling around with Tsunade and had hardly killed anyone, let alone interrogated them.
And Tokiju?
He was a good young man from the twenty-first century, after all. He didn't know the first thing about interrogation techniques.
Uchiha Hikari nodded, walked over to the sealed Cloud Ninja, and stared into his eyes. With her back to Shizune, she began casting a genjutsu.
After interrogating him through the genjutsu, Uchiha Hikari turned to Tokiju and said, "They were spies sent by Kumogakure. They'd just crossed the border when they ran into you, and they hadn't managed to gather any information yet."
"Uh..." Tokiju was speechless.
At that point, Shizune, who was standing nearby, said, "In that case, we should hurry back and report this to Lady Tsunade."
Uchiha Hikari nodded, then slashed the Cloud Ninja's throat with a single stroke.
She piled his body together with the other two and planned to destroy the corpses with a Great Fireball Technique.
Just as Uchiha Hikari was about to form hand seals, Tokiju stopped her. "Wait! I haven't searched their bodies yet!"
As he spoke, Tokiju rubbed his hands together and went to search the three Cloud Ninjas for anything valuable.
He found three reasonably well-made Ninja Blades, several Kunai and Shuriken, and eight Explosive Tags. There were no banknotes or anything like that.
Seeing Tokiju looking so greedy, Uchiha Hikari and Shizune were both speechless.
Once Tokiju had finished searching them, Uchiha Hikari swiftly formed hand seals and called out, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A huge fireball burst from Uchiha Hikari's mouth and completely incinerated the three Cloud Ninjas' corpses.
Before you continue